Yesterday was Bright and Bold's 4 month birthday!

The steers got to pull something for the first time today. In the past I have hitched a pole between them so that they would get used to having something dragging behind them. When I hitched the steers to the tire, I was worried that one of two things would happen, either they would worry that the tire was chasing them, and try to run away from it, or they wouldn't like the feeling of something pulling on their necks, and would refuse to go. When we first started walking, they seemed a little jumpy, and afraid of the tire, but they soon settled down and were extremely well behaved.

trudging through knee deep snow.

Bright and Bold saw their first real snow yesterday, we have almost a foot now! The snow proved to be a huge distraction though because the steers would have liked to stand around and eat snow rather than walk through it.

Going for a walk in the snow.

I took the steers for a walk in the snow today. I only put  lead rope on Bright  and just put Bold in the yoke. It is really exciting that they are well behaved enough that only one steer needs to have a lead rope!

Bright and Bold's fur has recently become very fluffy because of the cold weather. I measured their weight again and they are both about 175 lbs.

I recommend that everyone read this article. It is about ox yokes and possible ways that they could be improved. I used some ideas from it when I made my most recent yoke.

http://www.tillersinternational.org/oxen/resources_techguides/ImprovingOxYokesTechGuide.pdf

Yoke Number 2

Bright and Bold's new yoke is finished. They got to try it on and go for a short walk with it today. It is a tiny bit big on them, but give it a week or two, and it will fit perfectly. The bows are made from 1/2 inch diameter pipe that I bent around a u-shaped piece of wood. Bending the metal pipes is much easier than making the traditional bows by bending wood. The yoke beam was made from a piece of 4 X 4 fir.

New Yoke

Bright and Bold have out grown their first yoke and i am now making a new one. I am almost done with the second yoke, and hopefully I will finish it tomorrow.

Working on the yoke. 

The new yoke.